Friday, 1 March 2013

Thinaiarisi Sarkkarai Adhirasam - Foxtail Millet Adhirasam

Thinai Adhirasam
Adhirasam, Nendrampazham, Sevvalai, Oiless murukku, Mundirikothu, Halwa, Sarkaravarati and roasted cashews are some of the speciality food of Tirunelveli region, that my maternal relatives from nagercoil, never fail to carry with them everytime they visit us. If not all, they made sure that, they carried at least Sevvalai or Nendrampazham with them. Adhirasams are made with sesame seeds, poppy seeds and a hole in the centre in this region, unlike the flat ones made in the other parts of TN. Though traditional Tirunelveli adhirasams are made using jaggery, I have given the sugar version, as I have already posted the jaggery version of adhirasam using rice flour.

Everytime my mother made adhirasam, she never fails to make a separate batch of her favourite "Sarkkarai Adhirasam or Sugar Adhirasam". Although we preferred the jaggery version, we never complained about the sugar or white adhirasam or it never took too long for us to empty the dabba. Why would we? As long as it is delicious, who cares what it is made of!

The reason why my blog is beginning to flood with millet recipes is because, these recipes prepared few months ago are part of an e book, that I had planned to do, which I dropped for the lack of understanding of technical details and eventually lost interest. While I still learn the nuances, some of the recipes will be shared in the meantime. Although you will be seeing a lot of millet recipes in the future, all these recipes are adaptable, where you can use regular rice instead of millet and continue with the recipe, if you do not fancy millet.

Thinai AdhirasamIngredients

Foxtail Millet flour 2 1/4 cup

Granulated Sugar 1/2 cup

Water 1/4 cup

Cardamom 2

Poppy seeds 1 tsp

White sesame seeds 1 tsp

Ghee 1 tsp

Method

Combine sugar and water and stir on medium heat until melted.

Strain the sugar syrup and transfer to a heavy bottomed vessel.

Bring the sugar syrup to a boil and continue to boil on medium heat, until soft ball consistency is reached. ( To check for soft ball consistency, drop a tsp of the boiling sugar syrup into a bowl of water. If the sugar syrup dissolves in the water then it is not ready yet, if it doesn't dissolve and if you are able to pick the syrup and make a ball out of the syrup and when thrown on a steel plate makes a noise, then the right consistency is reached)

Turn off the heat and add the poppy seeds, sesame seeds, cardamom and add in the flour immediately, stirring continuously until everything is mixed well.

Drizzle the ghee over the mixed batter and leave it aside overnight or for twenty four hours.

Take a small portion of the batter, place on a greased banana leaf or a plastic sheet and slightly flatten to a thick disc.

Using a bottle cap or any other cutter make a hole in the centre.

Slide the disc into medium hot oil and fry on both sides on low-med heat until brown and cooked through.

Transfer the thinai adhirasam to a bowl and repeat the same process until all the batter is used up.

Adhirasams can also be made flat, by flattening the batter into a slightly thinner disc and frying them in oil, without making a hole in the centre.

Once fried these flat adhirasams should be pressed using another flat ladle or by placing it on flat base and pressed with a heavy object to extract excess oil. ( This is done only when making flat adhirasams and not for adhirasam with hole)

The uncooked batter can be stored in a refrigerator upto a week and used, as and when needed.

Note:

Do not try to use store bought foxtail millet flour or rice flour to make adhirasams.

To make flour, rinse and soak 2 cups of foxtail millet for 3 hours.

Drain and spread the millet on a cloth and leave it to absorb excess moisture.

Grind the moist millet to a fine flour, sieve the flour and keep it ready to use.

(The millet should not be dry when it is ground to a flour, if dry sprinkle a little water and grind)

2 cups of millet will yield about 3 cups of flour, of which only 2 1/4 cup will be used to make adhirasam for the above given proportion. The remaining flour can be roasted until dry and stored for later use in other recipes or make a laddu mixing powdered sugar and melted ghee with the roasted flour.

Jaggery can be used instead of sugar. See my earlier post on making jaggery adhirasam.

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Tell me what you think Hiya all, Finally on this day of october the 1st, 2012, I have decided to include the comment form, after a long gap of two years. But, I am going to be a bit selfish here and keep all those nice and lovely things that is said for me and only me to cherish and will be sharing any queries that requires clarifications and your experience about the food if you have tried my recipes. So, drop in a word if you have anything to say and thanks a lot for stopping by. "Have a nice day"